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Microsoft AI Chief Warns of Uncontrolled 'Silicon Species'

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Microsoft AI head Mustafa Suleyman warns unchecked AI could spawn a 'silicon species' rivalling humans, and criticises Anthropic's approach to Claude.

The head of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, has warned that artificial intelligence built without adequate safeguards could give rise to a new "silicon species" that competes with humans. Speaking to the BBC's Today programme on Thursday, Suleyman said it was "right" for people to be concerned about the technology, but insisted there were "very practical things that we can do" to keep it under control.

Suleyman singled out the rival firm Anthropic, arguing it treats AI as though it were human - an approach he called "misguided" and one that risks producing technology humanity cannot control. His remarks add to a run of blunt warnings from senior figures across the AI industry about where the technology may be heading.

The Microsoft executive cautioned against companies building AI systems that can set their own objectives, earn money and own assets. Doing so, he said, would amount to "essentially seeding a new silicon species" - one that could "no doubt compete with us for resources, no matter how much it cares about humanity and loves us".

The dispute with Anthropic

Suleyman's broadcast comments followed an essay he published earlier in the week questioning how Anthropic trains its model, Claude. Even as he criticised the firm, he praised its boss, Dario Amodei, and his team as "intellectually honest people".

In the essay, Suleyman took aim at the practice of anthropomorphising - teaching AI to display human-like qualities. He argued this makes it appear as though Claude possesses its own desires, values and sense of self. Treating the technology this way, he warned, risks creating something "impossible" to control.

He was emphatic that machines have no inner life. "AIs are not conscious," he wrote. "They do not feel, experience, or suffer. They do not have innate preferences or underlying motivations." Instead, he described them as "sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans".

Anthropic has been approached for comment.

Calls for transparency and oversight

Suleyman said the industry needs far greater openness about how AI systems are trained and evaluated. That, he argued, should include independent scrutiny of how the systems behave, along with stronger tools to monitor and control them.

"We must not sleepwalk our way into a decision we later come to bitterly regret," he wrote.

His intervention drew support from Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton. She described his remarks as "the sort of conversation we need to be having internationally", drawing a contrast with what she called the "histrionics" of some AI companies - behaviour she said served only to "scare everyone".

The debate over AI autonomy

How much independence AI systems should be granted is increasingly splitting the sector. Speaking about a forthcoming AI summit, Suleyman called for "alignment" - the field that seeks to build human ethical ideas and principles into AI systems so they stay consistent with what people value. He said the technology must be "subordinate" to humanity.

The comments land amid a wider wave of caution from industry leaders. The head of OpenAI recently said the world was "right to be afraid" of AI, while also urging people to trust the firms building it.

Suleyman's central message was that the risks, while real, are not inevitable. The tools to keep AI in check exist, he argued - provided companies choose transparency and human oversight over systems that act on their own.

Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI, silicon species, Anthropic Claude, AI safety, AI alignment, Dario Amodei, artificial intelligence risks

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